Height of Eyjafjallajökull’s ash plume seen from space

Ash from the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull Volcano stranded thousands of airline passengers for days, costing the European airline industry an estimated 3.3 billion dollars. Better measurements of the location, size, and thickness of volcanic ash may help minimize the disruption of air travel during future eruptions.

Height of Eyjafjallajökull’s ash plume seen from space. Credit: NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team

If they knew the height of an ash cloud over a widespread area—information only possible from satellite views—forecasters would be able to better predict its movement.